thoughts on creativity

 

I think the ideas surrounding the concept of creativity really varies - there are a lot of opinions, beliefs & misconceptions, regarding creativity. 

Some people believe they aren't creative at all. 

Others believe that because of how creative they are and can be, it ought to be their vocation in life. 

Other suggestions proclaim the idea that everyone is creative - but perhaps not everybody enjoys that level of less cognitive thinking, and not everyone is capable of making money off of being creative.

Regardless of all these ideas surrounding the topic, I never really understood what it really meant to be creative. 

I grew up with the word always being associated with the arts, and the arts themselves always being associated with drawing & painting. 

When I was young, I was never particularly good at drawing or painting; no one in my family was particularly interested in artwork either and hence, I never really immersed myself in it.

All the adults I was surrounded with in my early life, all had careers in what I believed at the time had 'nothing to do with art' and, therefore, nothing to do with creativity. 

Recently, I watched a short documentary on Netflix called "The Creative Brain'. 

As I am currently studying a neuroscience module in university, and reading about different aspects & areas of the brain, I thought this would be particularly interesting.

The documentary changed my entire outlook on the idea of what it is to 'be creative'. 

I thought it was a certain skill that people either possessed, or lacked in having - I also thought it had something to do with the gene pool, seeing as no-one in my family believed they were particularly creative, I just assumed the same thing about myself for so long. 

When I started meeting new people in school and branching out in my hobbies, particularly in photography, I began to doubt how creative I really am, and often tried to push myself to prove to the people around me that I'm different - I can be creative. I am a creative.

The documentary proposed the idea to me that in fact, everyone is creative. All humans are, regardless of their profession. 

The level of our creativity is actually influenced more-so by our environment. Not genetics.

 

To be creative, we have to put ourselves out into the world and surround ourselves with a variety of different inputs, in order to generate new concepts, perspectives and ideas.

The human brain naturally tries to act as efficiently as possible; this means it will naturally go for the most obvious/easiest thing, taking the path of least resistance. What would this be? Something we've already done before.

Creativity emerges once we get off the path of least resistance - try something new.

The pre-frontal cortex of our brain is located in the frontal-lobe, essentially behind the forehead. It is concerned with the individual's personality and plays a role in regulating a person's depth of feeling. In addition, it also exerts in influence in determining an individuals initiative & judgement. 

In other words, you could say that the pre-frontal cortex is associated with a persons 'originality'. What makes them, them.

Often, the idea of creativity overlaps with originality - which is valid- however, originality can mistakenly be considered as simply unique, different, and something 'never done before'. 

Hence, the narrative is drawn that to be creative means to be original, and to be original you must invent something new.

This is true, but in a specific way:

- to be creative, and the best way for us to 'invent' new ideas, is to build upon the ones that already exist.

This is not to copy any preceding work, but to take inspiration from & then revamp with our own personal twist.

"It is in the play with convention, that originality arises. Not in the rejection of convention." 

[ convention = how things are usually done ].

The strategy ought not to be "how am I going to differentiate what I'm doing, to what's been done before," but rather: "how can I use what they did?"

- our unique experiences in life will inevitably intervene, for us to be able to produce original work anyway. 

What we create is unique, because our life experiences are unique.